


Lost

by deutschistklasse



Series: Salvage Universe [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Five Stages of Grief, Gen, Just lost, Nobody is Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22761565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deutschistklasse/pseuds/deutschistklasse
Summary: Zuko fell in the ocean and was lost in the storm. What would his uncle and his crew do? - Takes place during MuffinLance's fic Salvage. Or the answer I came up to the question: what does Uncle Iroh do while his nephew is captured by Hakoda?
Series: Salvage Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1905865
Comments: 46
Kudos: 692





	Lost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).



> I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender.  
> Inspired by MuffinLance's fics and tumblr. Her ideas are really tempting. So instead of sleep I write again. Yay!

  1. **Denial**



The weather-worn ship survived the storm, but their young captain was lost to the ocean, their last image of him being his desperate attempts to free himself of his armor and to swim back to them. The crew wasn’t prepared for his failure.

The Prince was always tenacious, and they all knew he would survive anything, if for no other reason just to aggravate them. They saw his relentless attempts at capturing the Avatar and his determination to just stand up and continue even in the face of the impossible. The Prince was _good with the impossible_ , if somebody would make it in these circumstances, it was him.

During the storm they needed to concentrate on saving the ship and General Iroh, who kept trying to jump in after his nephew. It would have been really foolish, but they could understand it, they would have tried the same for their beloved ones too.

After the storm they kept searching the water for days, as if they would find him, and then fish him out, next the General would berate him for his arrogance and stupidity… but they didn’t find him. Instead they found some driftwood with the Prince’s sash caught in it. Not the Prince. Just the stupid sash. So at a given moment their young captain was lucid enough to try holding on the flotsam. But what happened afterwards? The crew tried to be optimistic, and General Iroh was outright refusing the possibility of Prince Zuko’s death, so they just kept searching.

  1. **Anger**



General Iroh was furious. The crew was fearing for their lives… or for his health. They never saw the Dragon of the West in their young captain’s uncle, now they had the full experience with breath of fire and all. He kept bellowing at them to search better, to ask for information from the nearby ports, to be more competent, as if with this they would somehow discover Prince Zuko’s hiding place.

The crew was very irate. Since days their beloved General was incomprehensible. It wasn’t their fault the Prince was too arrogant to chose safety over danger. They kept muttering and blaming each other, but mostly their young captain. How could he have been so stupid?! It wasn’t fair to them.

…It wasn’t fair to him too. So they kept grumbling and searching _everywhere_ for him.

  1. **Bargaining**



General Iroh had a new habit. He prayed to every spirit he knew, to Agni, to Tui and La for hours. He offered them repeatedly his life in exchange for his nephew’s. He kept offering them everything he kept dear, just _not his second son_. Not him. He was feeling so guilty. If only he would have been more strict with, if only he would have ordered him to safety. If only the crew didn’t hold him back.

The crew had a new habit too. They hated how they were powerless to stop their young captain falling over or how they failed to rescue him. They knew they were weak, and if they could become stronger, maybe their Prince would be back too. So they began a new training routine, more severe than the Prince’s. The crew bargained not with the spirits. But they kept thinking: if only…

Meanwhile they made everything in their power to evade Zhao’s ship. They didn’t needed that problem in addition to this.

  1. **Depression**



The crew was losing hope. It was weeks since they last saw the Prince and they didn’t received any new information regarding him or the storm. They were neglecting their duty, not knowing what to do. The Prince always aggravated them with his shouting and obsession with the Avatar, but he gave them purpose, direction. Without him the crew was lost.

They tried to hold General Iroh together too. The General was in a worrying state, he was unkempt, with large bags under his eyes, clear signs of insomnia. He was losing weight, and the most alarming was his _aversion of tea_. In the early stages of his depression he tried to drink some calming tea, but he kept pouring for two people… and then he was bawling his eyes out. Then he just stopped.

The crew privately thought, it was better when the General was angry or bargaining or even crying inconsolably. This vacant look on his face, this withdrawal from his hobbies, his rapidly shrinking form was terrifying.

They regretted every mean joke, every slur against their Prince. Just now, when they lost him had they understood how attached they were to him. They missed even his irrational anger at them. They survived the storm but it felt as if they were the ones sinking. What would happen now? They feared the worst.

  1. **Acceptance (or not)**



This drifting feeling was ended by Princess Azula’s letter. Apparently she found General Iroh’s ability to lose Prince Zuko very funny. And she found hilarious that some Water Tribe savages would try to bargain with the Fire Lord. As if her brother would be someone valuable. She mocked them, her brother, her uncle, the crew for their incompetence.

General Iroh thought nothing about the tone of the letter, he was ecstatic. For the first time in almost a month he had a clue about his nephew. He penned several letters, then ordered the crew to follow their new lead.

The crew obeyed with renewed hope. They restarted their rigorous training too. They wanted to make their young captain proud. They didn’t know what they would do, bargain or fight when they find the Water Tribe’s ship, but they did know one thing for sure. They would do everything to have their arrogant, hotheaded, stupid Prince back. He was theirs, like they were his.

General Iroh was smiling. One way or another _he was taking back_ his nephew. And woe to those who would stand in his way.


End file.
